Melania Trump says in a rare public statement that the words her husband used in the 2005 footage released Friday “are unacceptable and offensive to me.”

She added that the words do “not represent the man that I know,” adding, “He has the heart and mind of a leader.”

Trump was newly married when he bragged on tape about trying to have sex with married women and groping others without permission.

Melania Trump says she “hopes people will accept his apology, as I have, and focus on the important issues facing our nation and the world.”

Photo: AP Photo/John Marshall Mantel

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

In this Monday, May 17, 2004, file photo, Donald Trump, center, star of the television show “The Apprentice,” and his then fiancee, Melania Knauss, right, arrive for NBC’s presentation of its fall season to advertisers at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Randal Pinkett, who won the program in December 2005 and who has recently criticized Trump during his 2016 run for president, said he remembered the real estate mogul talking about which contestants he wanted to sleep with, even though Trump had married Melania, a former model, earlier that year: “He was like ‘Isn’t she hot, check her out,’ kind of gawking, something to the effect of ‘I’d like to hit that.’” less

In this Monday, May 17, 2004, file photo, Donald Trump, center, star of the television show “The Apprentice,” and his then fiancee, Melania Knauss, right, arrive for NBC’s presentation of ... more